Eldred Pottinger was now the ranking political officer and had negotiated—at the insistence of the army's officers—an unmolested passage to Jalalabad.2002, Stephen Tanner, Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban, page 176:
3
Prominent or outstanding.
In a region as large and sparsely populated as this, it is not surprising that there are few cities. Hu-ho-hao-t’e and Pao-t’ou are the two ranking cities of Inner Mongolia. Hu-ho-hao-t’e, the capital of the region, is one of China's famous ancient cities; it was once a trade center to which the wool, hides, food, and medicine from the surrounding grasslands were brought.1973, Chiao-min Hsieh, “Inner Mongolia”, in Christopher L. Salter, editor, Atlas of China, McGraw-Hill, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 188, column 1:
But neither leader nor followers give up the rhythms or reasons of a ranking MC, and I'm grieved to report that only “Kick Out the Jams” overcomes the formlessness of personality his detractors have always charged him with — […]1990, Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s, page 48:
The placing of something in a list, for comparison with others.
2
One’s relative placement in a list, especially to indicate relative quality, size, success etc.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) CEO Warren Buffett and Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg rank third and fourth in the world's richest rankings.2018 February 6, Paul R. La Monica, “Amazon worth more than Microsoft for first time”, in CNN Business: